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Post by templeton on Aug 8, 2013 3:57:33 GMT -5
Last night i returned from my lengthy (~ 3 months) holiday in north western australia, pulled into the carport, ignored the overflowing gutters, and despite the cold, rain, and impending dark, hurried out to the shed. Craig had been assessing my autumn pea growouts while i was away, and had them bagged up and spread on a piece of bird netting under the shed roof. Smelled a bit musty, so i gathered them up, and laid them out in front of the ducted heating vents inside. A quick inspection showed they hadn't produced very well over autumn and winter, with many unfilled pods, and lots with wizen little peas in them, that experience has shown won't produce good plants. Since I'm keen to get sowing, I went through all my old F2 and F3 seed lots today, and was scratching my head on how to proceed, since none of the dozens of lots from multiple crosses had all the desirable characteristics, and I hadn't grown out enough progeny to be able to determine homozygous parents for new crosses that might combine the desirable characteristics But I've just sorted through Craig's collections, and have some great material to work with, including two lines that seem to be homozygous purple, dwarf, low or no fiber, and with at least a couple of plants from each of two lines also carrying the two recessive genes for enhanced powdery mildew resistance. Haven't done the sums yet, so not sure of my probabilities (will report soon). The yellow snow F4s also look good. More details to follow. Just had to tell someone  T |
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Post by templeton on Aug 9, 2013 4:48:41 GMT -5
A more measured assessment, assisted by a few glasses of fine Penfolds Shiraz, reveals some interesting linkages.
All my powdery resist dwarf purple snows have short, constricted pods. I haven't grown enough of each line to really assess linkage between genes, but now I'm scratching my head over possible crosses to introduce large pods. Do I go with the disease susceptible, slightly purple lines? The half purple sweet tall resistant lines? Or would a 'bugger it, throw the lot in and go for mass selection' strategy be the way to go?
Ah, the pleasures of plant breeding!
T
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Post by raymondo on Aug 14, 2013 7:17:28 GMT -5
A pleasant dilemma T. Have you made any decisions? I'll be growing just one of my lines this season preparing for a cross into another snap pea (Sugar Sprint). I'll use the same snap to cross into Golden in an effort to get a better yellow podded pea.
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Post by templeton on Aug 17, 2013 3:00:37 GMT -5
A pleasant dilemma T. Have you made any decisions? I'll be growing just one of my lines this season preparing for a cross into another snap pea (Sugar Sprint). I'll use the same snap to cross into Golden in an effort to get a better yellow podded pea. Ray, Sugar sprint? Ears prick up.... I couldn't decide, so I'm going with a combination "selection-mass grow out-hedge my bets" strategy. I've selected all the F3 and F4 purple and half - 3/4 purple snows, a number of other purples that look like they might have some desirable characteristics or appear vaguely homozygous purple, a highly resistant huge podded green half snow that turned up unexpectedly in case i need to do a cross, all the yellow snows in case my dodgy autumn growout unfairly hindered a promising line, a number of F2 purples from another line. Just because I haven't got enough choice, I've also sown 100 F2 purpleXsnaps for something to go on with, and some, actually all, of my snowXsemileafless F1 seed. And a couple of potential parents for a few more crosses in case i win lotto and buy a farm. My extension garden at Pete and Megs is currently under water  I've got 350 F2 seeds from a Delta LouisaXpurple podded cross begging to get planted, but I can't find the room. A decent yellow snow is not far away, I got lots of promising lines in autumn in the F3 lines, but the winter seed production was poor, so I'm doing a big grow out of the F4 seed that i did get to select this spring. Happy to send you some seed when i get some if you want a jump start. T |
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Post by raymondo on Aug 18, 2013 2:31:01 GMT -5
Sugar sprint? Ears prick up.... An early, bush snap, said to be almost stringless and supposedly carrying resistance to both powdery mildew and pea enation virus, not that either bother peas where I am but hey, you never know! A little more diversity can't hurt, right? I'll be growing out what I have to use as crossing material, to do a taste test and to bulk up seed. I couldn't decide, so I'm going with a combination "selection-mass grow out-hedge my bets" strategy. I've selected all the F3 and F4 purple and half - 3/4 purple snows, a number of other purples that look like they might have some desirable characteristics or appear vaguely homozygous purple, a highly resistant huge podded green half snow that turned up unexpectedly in case i need to do a cross, all the yellow snows in case my dodgy autumn growout unfairly hindered a promising line, a number of F2 purples from another line. Just because I haven't got enough choice, I've also sown 100 F2 purpleXsnaps for something to go on with, and some, actually all, of my snowXsemileafless F1 seed. And a couple of potential parents for a few more crosses in case i win lotto and buy a farm. My extension garden at Pete and Megs is currently under water I've got 350 F2 seeds from a Delta LouisaXpurple podded cross begging to get planted, but I can't find the room. A decent yellow snow is not far away, I got lots of promising lines in autumn in the F3 lines, but the winter seed production was poor, so I'm doing a big grow out of the F4 seed that i did get to select this spring. Happy to send you some seed when i get some if you want a jump start. T So just a few then... |
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Post by templeton on Aug 18, 2013 4:33:55 GMT -5
Ambition exceeding acreage...
T
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Post by raymondo on Sept 5, 2013 2:16:04 GMT -5
Chose only one line of my purple snaps/snows to sow this spring and sowed about 40 seeds today. I need more trellis space which I'll build on the weekend (might as well do something constructive while the country goes down the gurgler!). I'll then sow another twenty or so seeds. Sixty plants is about all I can manage. I'll also sow a few Goldens to use as parent material in a cross to develop a yellow snap. Mother this year will be Sugar Sprint and being a dwarf type I won't need to sow it just yet. For food, I'll put in a good long row of Cascadia snap pea, one of my faves.
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